Friday, September 26, 2014

Often we receive calls from people who
are concerned about a neighbor's tree, and wondering what legal and ethical
rights they have in the matter. I'm not a lawyer and I can't give legal advice.
I only have the benefit of my experience working with the different scenarios
for the past 30 years. Over the years, I've been directly or indirectly
involved in numerous situations where, in the case of tree damage, insurance
company policies have come into play about who pays for what.

Naturally, I would encourage all
property owners to work with and cooperate with their neighbor's in the name of
safety and security for both parties. That's just a part of being a good
neighbor. But, it's nice to have a few guidelines to go by in the process.
While there are exceptions to every rule, here's what I've seen as standard
practice:

To begin with, there is a common
misconception regarding trees that are located directly on a property line,
that a property owner can legally remove every-other-tree. That's not true, the
consent of both property owners is required to remove the tree. What about
limbs overhanging the property line? Think of the property line as a vertical
invisible wall. In general, you can remove any limb, or part of a limb, that is
on your side of the wall, as long as it doesn't cause damage to your neighbor's
property.

What if a neighbor's tree falls today,
and damages your property? The courts and/or the insurance company, if either
become involved, will likely declare that it was "an act of God" and
it's your responsibility. What if you feel your neighbor has a hazardous tree
or limb that is threatening your property? The first thing to do would be to
get an arborists opinion to see if it really is an elevated threat. If it is,
the neighborly thing to do would be to ask the neighbor to remove the threat,
or at the very least, let you remove it. I've seen many cases where neighbors
have split the cost to remove such a threat. In the rare case where the neighbor
refuses to cooperate in taking care of an actual threat to your property, you
will need to officially notify them, in some provable way, about your request
that they remove the threat. This puts the responsibility back on them to take
care of the threat or be liable if anything happens.

I've seen cases where, in severe
weather, such as a hurricane, everyone's trees end up on everyone else's
property. The question often comes up about who is responsible to pay the bill.
The standard procedure, in these cases, is that each landowner will take care
of the damage and cleanup on their own property, regardless of where the
tree(s) came from.

Hopefully, this information will help
clarify some common property line tree issues so that neighboring property
owners will be better educated about what is, or isn't, expected of them.
Thanks for being a good neighbor.

Robert Fogg is general manager of Q-Team
Tree Service in Naples and is also a licensed Arborist.

I’m a
sensitive Suzy and I’ll admit it. I take things personally sometimes that
shouldn’t be taken personally and my feelings get hurt if someone tells me I
suck at something that I think I’m great at. I think the sensitivity comes from
being a very passionate person who knows just one speed limit, 100 mph.
Naturally, when you’re a person such as me you notice things that others may
not. One thing I notice a lot is (inadvertently) rude email. You know, email
that makes you and me sound like a big jerk and we don’t even realize it. Below
are three ways you and I sound like a jerk when we rush to push “send.”

Entire
email in the subject line. Let
me translate this for you, “Hi David, I’m far too busy to click into the body
of the email and write something that may take an additional five seconds and
quite frankly you’re not worth the time and effort. Instead I have written this
entire email in the subject line. Please follow my request immediately.”

One
or two word emails that make no sense if they are not read immediately. This is a common offense.

No
greeting, no ending – just instructions. To me this is you essentially telling me
here’s what I need you to do, but I don’t have time to type, “Hi David” at the
beginning or “Thanks” at the conclusion of the email. Imagine if you and I were
at Starbucks getting a Pumpkin’ Spice Latte’ and we just sat down at our table
by the window, would you start the conversation with, “We need to meet Friday to
discuss why my employees hate me.” And then you get up and leave without saying
goodbye. Naturally I would think this was pretty rude behavior and it would
leave me confused as to why you treated me that way. But, if you started it
with “Hi David, I need to talk with you about why all my employees hate me. Can
we meet Friday? I’m in a real rush, I have to go photocopy my middle finger and
paste it all over the break room.” At least you said, “Hi” and “Bye.”

Granted
there are exceptions to every rule but hopefully these tips will help you from
creating any rifts in the workplace. Being a jerk and accidentally sounding
like a jerk are two different things. One you can control, the other…well, good
luck.

A few
weeks ago, I was minding my own business, enjoying my favorite beverage when I
was given some unsolicited advice. “Hey man… don’t you know that stuff is
poison?”

I’ll
bet you think I’m a hardcore coffee guy. Or maybe you think I indulge in beer
or some other alcoholic beverage.

Nope.
I hate coffee and rarely indulge in alcohol.

My
drug of choice is Pepsi Max.

For
those that don’t understand what Pepsi Max is, it’s a caffeine laced diet cola.
The magic word “diet” would clue in some people in to the probability that it
contains an artificial sweetener, like aspartame. If you are so inclined to
think that, you would be correct.

Now,
I’m a reasonably educated man. I like to think that I keep up on the news. I’ve
read about how harmful and/or evil aspartame supposedly can be to the human
body. It causes tumors the size of the human head on lab rats and it causes
bunny rabbits to spontaneously combust. It may even be the second leading cause
of global warming (next to George W. Bush, of course). And don’t get me started
on the stuff that I see about aspartame on the Facebook.

Unless
you’ve lived under a rock, you probably know how bad any kind of soda is for the human body. (For those emerging from
caves this week…let me be the first to tell you that soda is bad for you.)

My
problem isn’t with soda. It’s with the advice.

To
take the time out of your day to “inform” me that diet soda is bad for me is
absurd. My response to people that do that offer this “advice” is to question
whether or not they have ever smoked a cigarette, had too much to drink,
neglected to brush their teeth after eating, or had unprotected sex. All of
these are terrible acts that could also have horrible side effects on the human
body.

The
point here is that nobody is perfect. We’ve all done something that is less
than healthy to our bodies. If I went through the trouble of pointing out the
bad habits of everybody that I meet, my finger would get sore from pointing so
much. If you’re one of those people that feels the need to point out the
shortcomings of others…Well, good for you. Apparently you have beaten the odds
and are perfect. You’ve never eaten red meat, jaywalked, had fried chicken,
driven too fast, or not washed your hands for a full 30 seconds after using a
public restroom.

If
you are one of the many flawed individuals that walks the planet, just enjoy
your life and not nitpick my indulgence of the world’s most perfect beverage...Pepsi
Max.

If
you are a gardener or even if you are not, you know that plant life comes into
life in the spring after a dormant winters rest, and that is when the most of
us start our gardens. To some of us we like to garden year round, and also keep
plants inside, especially flower plants. Others that love their outside gardens
may go to the extent of cold frames, hoop houses, green houses and sometimes
even heated green houses to extend the season. You can even use cold frames
inside your unheated green houses and harvest year round certain vegetables.

I
will try and keep this interesting and try to keep it in the right perspective
for those of us that want the best from an organic garden. In the olden days
when I was a kid about four or five years old, my siblings and I worked with
our parents using shovels, hoes, and rakes, to dig to cultivate our gardens. We
were a working team, and it was enjoyable. Dad would say “Okay, today we are
going to play a game and it’s called ‘dig the garden’.” I can’t remember how
large the plot was, maybe 80-feet by 40-feet. We planted potatoes, and all kinds
of vegetables. It was tough. Dad would dig the sod and us kids would beat and
shake out the sod and save the worms for fishing. Well anyway, in those days
you just add some manure to the soil from cows, sheep, pigs, chickens. Whatever
grass and grain fed farm animals you had around and the gardens grew great as
long as you received the proper amount of rain. The manure was spread in the
fall or early spring and turned under as you worked the soil, preferably
several weeks prior to planting. There wasn’t any need in those days to add
other amenities because the proof was in the pudding, the plants looked and
tasted good, and filled the void. What more could you ask for? Well okay, that’s
good, but let’s put things in a little better perspective. In those days you
weren’t all that close to town or a city that supplied amenities for the soil.
They were known, and people then were just as smart then as now, but small
farmers just were not going to add amenities unless maybe it was lime. “The
proof is in the pudding.”

There
is a better way

Test
the soil. Get a soil test kit and follow the directions. Be sure to use clean
tools and bucket for taking the samples. You may use Clorox and water to
sterilize your tools and bucket. A couple of bottle caps to about one-third
water in your bucket. Wash thoroughly. Wear rubber gloves for protection. Rinse
thoroughly with clean water. I like to use my trowel and scrape off the top
half-inch of soil, then dig down approximately three inches. You will do this
in evenly spaced spots in your garden. With all the trowel spots in your
bucket, thoroughly mix them all together. You have a box that came with the
kit, and you now can fill this and send it in to be analyzed. In approximately
two to six weeks depending when you take the sample, you can expect your
results to come back. There will be lots of valuable information on your
returned report. Be sure you understand this report and follow their recommendations
as closely as you can.

Friday, September 19, 2014

11.5 pounds down. I feel great. Down a
size and a half... can’t wait to be down two sizes. As I said, the first couple
weeks were pretty hard for me as it is not simply changing my home eating
habits, but changing how I think of food and how I plan what I'm eating. For
example, when I want chocolate I want it right then and there... I don't want
to have to think about where to find a healthy chocolate and then wait days
until I can get it. So, I found a low carb chocolate company... ordered $100 in
chocolate (I know that sounds crazy) but when I want it, I have it, and its
only one net carb... oh yeah, and delicious. The purpose for me to share this
is that even with the new way of thinking, with my crazy life, it is working.
I’m enjoying it, and feeling great. As I was sitting at Star Nails getting my
nails done yesterday I met the nicest woman who was also trying to lose weight.
She shared with me that she has set a goal to lose four pounds (I think that is
what it was) and she is rewarding herself by doing something for herself, getting her nails done
again. I thought about this a lot and I love the idea of rewarding myself, so,
for every five pounds I lose I am going to get a massage. I am saving so much
money with planning my meals and eating healthier that I can afford this and I
deserve this.

Niels Mank

Week 5 loss: 27

It has been five weeks and I am down 27
pounds. I have lost a shirt size, find my jackets fitting more loosely, and
have had to tighten my pants belt. I am eating healthier than I ever have and
not feeling hungry. I am finding many substitutions for the poor eating habits
I once had. If I have learned anything from this process it’s that Mend-A-Body
is not a diet but a way of teaching you about your poor choices and what you
could have that would be a healthy alternative. I never knew I could eat
certain foods at certain times and it would promote healthy living. Some of the
simplest things that I have been taught in the past five weeks seem so simple
but nobody ever educated me on them. I have been shown so many new recipes that
now I can help my entire family eat for better overall health. I am so happy
that I found Mend-A-Body and will forever be grateful for the education they
have given me. I now understand carbs, protein, sugar, fiber, and all the other
nutrition labels that I never even looked at before on my food. I am excited to
see what the next couple of weeks bring.

Michelle Libby
Week 5 down 25.

Michelle holding the weight she's lost thus far.

Dieting is hard. Let’s face it, it’s not
easy living a healthy lifestyle. The grocery store seems like a landmine field,
we are confronted with delicious treats at every outing, party and event. I
admit, at times I am weak. I just want to sneak a little of the brownies my mom
made or have a few M&Ms because I’m craving chocolate. I wouldn’t be human
if I didn’t fall off the cart, but getting run over by said cart is a bad plan.

This week, we started getting coached on
our own. The more personalized plan comes into play. I, unlike Kelly and Niels,
do cook at home and have always done that. I love making casseroles and pasta.
This however doesn’t enter into my new life plan. I’ve had to attempt to come
up with quick, easy and healthy solutions for dinner which before I would boil
up pasta and toss it in a bowl. Preparation seems to be the key.

Tonight I’ll be getting a call, my
second this week, from a new coach who has been where I am. She’s nationally
known and understands that success doesn’t happen overnight. Mend-A-Body also
has encouraged me to write down everything I’m eating to check my carb
consumption and my fiber.

I’m at the tweaking point in my plan.
I’ve cut out the bread, soda and most of the junk I used to eat. Now I need
help to fine tune what I’m eating to get the number on the scale plummeting.
I’ve lost 25 pounds and at least 4 inches from my waist. I can feel the
difference, but I can’t see it. I like the reality of this program and will
keep up with it.